Not only are there plenty of international players in this year’s ANZPT Sydney Main Event field, but there are many players who have previous major poker titles to their credit.

There were several former ANZPT/APPT champions in yesterday’s field and today is no exception. We have former ANZPT Gold Coast champion Peter Matusik in action along with recent ANZPT Perth winner Patrick Mahoney.

Former Aussie Millions champion David Gorr has also taken his seat today. Gorr won Australia’s premier poker tournament in 2011 and has since had some solid results on the ANZPT despite a reduced playing schedule.

Another champion that will no doubt be flying under the radar of everyone today is Christina Pie.

Back in 1999, Pie won the Ladies Event at the WSOP in Seven-Card Stud. While she is listed under many WSOP records as American, Pie was originally from Sydney in Australia and her $34,000 win was one of the first significant WSOP achievements in Australian poker.

Another bracelet winner in today’s field is Australian Poker Hall of Famer Gary Benson. Back in 1996, Benson was victorious in a $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Event and has since recorded results all around the globe. He’s arguably in the best form of his career with deep runs in the Aussie Millions, ANZPT and WPT in recent times.

Benson finds himself seated next to the man who undoubtedly provided Australia’s greatest poker moment.

Joe Hachem topped the world in the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event and helped kick-start a poker boom in this country, elevating the game of poker to heights that may never be matched again. Hachem is a World Champion and great ambassadaor of the game, so it’s great to see him here in Sydney for this event.

Joe Hachem has taken his seat, along with brother, and two-time ANZ Player of the Year, Tony Hachem, in today’s Day 1B field to bump numbers for this event to a total of 458. The number of entrants for the ANZPT Sydney has been scarily consistent with the event attracting 461, 460 and now 458 over the past three years. It’s quite an achievement to continue to produce such a strong, consistent number in the tough poker climate, so it’s a credit to the team at PokerStars and The Star.

We’ll have confirmation of the final numbers, along with the prize pool and payouts for you a little later today.

Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.

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